Seems like a good many of her district constiuents agree with the "she drank the Koolaid" comments.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/09/nyregion/09district.html?_r=2&ref=usFebruary 9, 2009
To Some in Gillibrand’s Old District, Her Evolution Is a Betrayal
By DAVID M. HALBFINGER
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — Now that Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand represents all of New York rather than one conservative swath outside Albany, she has described her shift on hot-button issues like illegal immigration and gay marriage as a broadening of her position.
But in the 20th Congressional District, which first sent Ms. Gillibrand to Washington in 2006, many are taking it as an abandonment of the principles that persuaded them to support a Democrat in this predominantly Republican area.
“I don’t think it’s right when you say one thing and do something else,” said Michelle Boyea, 44, as she sat in her car after running errands around town. If you have a position, and this is what you feel, why would you change it just because you got a new job?”
Ms. Boyea was unhappy with Ms. Gillibrand’s sudden change of heart, after being appointed to the Senate, on issues that had won her re-election in November. She liked the voting record that had earned Ms. Gillibrand a 100 percent rating by the National Rifle Association (Ms. Boyea’s husband owns several firearms). She approved of Ms. Gillibrand’s hard line against illegal immigration and her opposition to gay marriage. “I’m Catholic,” Ms. Boyea said.
But Ms. Gillibrand has softened some of her positions in the weeks since her appointment. She declared her support for gay marriage, not merely civil unions. She assured Latinos and Asians in New York City that she would work to enact a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants. And she let Senator Charles E. Schumer, who had enthusiastically supported her selection, reassure downstate voters that she would “evolve” on gun control, too.
To which Ms. Boyea, one of many Republicans here who voted for Ms. Gillibrand in November, offered this rebuke: “I don’t believe you should say things just to make yourself sound better. Don’t follow. If you’re going to be a leader, then lead.”
Across much of the 20th District, which wraps around Albany from Hudson to Glens Falls, reaches into both the Adirondacks and the Catskills and has 200,000 registered Republicans and 125,000 Democrats, Republicans said they liked Ms. Gillibrand’s fiscal conservatism, her work ethic, her frequent town meetings and her attention to farming.
But they especially liked her independence from liberal ideology and from party leaders like Mr. Schumer and the State Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver.
“I respected the fact that she came out and said she was going to back up the guns, and hunting,” said Keith Disbrow, 53, a retired correction officer. “I’m an avid hunter and fisherman. But as soon as Schumer and Silver got to her, I watched her change her tune. She was doing a decent job, but now that she’s going to be a statewide senator, I think they’re going to make her fold. She’s not going to have the Democratic Party’s backing if she doesn’t.”
At a Home Depot store in Wilton, Ray and Tina Morris were buying light bulbs for the steakhouse they own. “She is a Democrat, but she had some conservative positions,” Mr. Morris said. “A little less government, a little less taxation. I was with her on the Second Amendment, for hunting. And on immigration. My feeling is we should probably stop people coming in, find out who’s who, and sort people out.
“But we’re not sure where she’s going now,” Mr. Morris added. “I think she’s hanging around with the wrong people.”
In nearby Greenfield, Chris Franco, 34, a mechanical engineer, said that although he had not voted for Ms. Gillibrand, he liked much of what she had said, including her previous stands on immigration. “It’s time to take a stand,” he said. “I’m a Navy veteran, and I didn’t fight for my country to have illegals coming here.”
He also said he opposed gay marriage. “I’m completely against it,” he said. “What you do in your own home is up to you, but I’m not for taking it into the institution that God created between man and woman.”
Mr. Franco was not pleased with Ms. Gillibrand’s recent statements, but he said he was not surprised. “She’s like all the politicians,” he said. “Either she was lying then, or she’s lying now. Either way, she’s lying.”
Elizabeth Snyder, a pharmaceutical sales representative, was sitting in her car talking about the fiscal stimulus package pending in Congress, which she opposes. “I called Schumer and Gillibrand’s offices just this morning,” Ms. Snyder said. “I said, ‘I hope she sticks with her fiscal conservative roots up here in upstate New York. I hope she doesn’t let Senator Schumer roll over on her.’ ”
Ms. Snyder, who had not voted for Ms. Gillibrand, said she was resigned to her political evolution. “I think we can count on her voting the party line, to prove to the naysayers on the left that she is their gal,” Ms. Snyder said.
Not everyone was downbeat. Judd Storm, 56, a mill shop owner who owns rifles and was applying for a pistol permit, said Ms. Gillibrand had done a fine job delivering for upstate communities. And she still had his support, he said.
“I don’t care who it is, they all say whatever it takes to win,” Mr. Storm said. “What are you going to do? But she helped the farmers out. She’s working hard to bring jobs. I learned to trust her.”
In South Glens Falls, as the sun set on the steam-spewing paper plants that bracket the Hudson River, Gayle Osborn and her sister, Elaine Kerner, who both work at a local utility company, were drinking wine at a neighborhood bar.
“I liked Kirsten because she’s very hands-on, she’s an upstater, she’s conscientious about the kinds of problems we face,” Ms. Osborn said. “I like her stands with the N.R.A. This is an area where that’s important to people. But she’s getting twisted.
“I think a lot of that is because Schumer is behind her,” she added. “You get that good-old-boy thing going on, and they start changing their positions. But it’s like, ‘No! We voted for you because of your positions.’ ”
Ms. Kerner put down her glass. “I want new, fresh people,” she said. “Gillibrand started out that way, and I see her flipping.”
Ms. Osborn agreed, but added that she was proud to have another woman in the Senate: “I’m not dumping her yet.”
